ABSTRACT
Many women find hypnobirth through their fear of giving birth. The internal conversation they replay over and over again can include thoughts about pain, fear and not coping. Leeman suggest that a woman's confidence in her ability to cope with labour is the best predictor of pain during the first stage of labour. In order to make changes to beliefs and habits using hypnosis, the critical faculty of the conscious mind must be bypassed, which allows access to unconscious mind and negative beliefs can be released and replaced with positive ones. Dr Alvin M. Krasner was a world-renowned hypnotherapist, founding the American Institute of Hypnotherapy in 1981, and during his life he taught thousands of students all over the world. Women who are pregnant can perform birth rehearsal using visualisation alongside the breathing and other practical techniques. A study by Roure showed that six specific autonomic nervous system (ANS) responses, related to mental rehearsal, showed an improvement in sports performance.
